NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 13, 2026 features an image titled "Desert Stairway to Heaven," showing the Desert Staircase sculpture in Chile's Atacama Desert beneath a wide night sky. According to the accompanying explanation, the sculpture brings viewers only a little closer to heaven, while the sky above offers several points of interest.

The explanation notes the dark lane of the Milky Way rising behind the desert, a band of zodiacal light in the upper left, and green and red airglow just above the horizon. The star Spica appears in the zodiacal light stripe, and the Small Magellanic Cloud is visible at the top right. The image was timed so the sculpture sits just in front of the near-vertical Milky Way band, and the horizon includes, from left to right, parts of the Andes Mountains, the Licancabur volcano and the town lights of San Pedro de Atacama.

The wide-angle composite was captured in July 2025, and credit and copyright are attributed to Julien Looten. The image was published as the APOD entry for October 13, 2026.